Very enjoyable Thursday morning recording a podcast episode with Dr Viv John in the studio and Dr @ehmacgregor.bsky.social (+ Walnut the dog) in Oxford. Plenty of critique for the National Plans for Music Education of both England and Wales!

Tomorrow, I'll be joining @ehmacgregor.bsky.social & Viv John to present our work comparing the Welsh & English National Plans for Music Education. Cardiff Met colleagues please come along if you can! Article here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🔸 Open Access - Wales Journal of Education 26.2 🔸 'Are we nearly there yet? 25 years of initial teacher education policy in Wales' by Trevor Mutton and @thomasbreeze.bsky.social Read: journal.uwp.co.uk/wje/article/...

I've mainly been shocking and offending journal peer reviewers this year rather than students. Can we warn them too? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Very much looking forward to presenting two papers at #RiME2025 this Thursday and Friday! I'll be drawing on my postdoctoral research @somervillecollege.bsky.social and some recent work with the Group for Research in Music Education at Cardiff Metropolitan @thomasbreeze.bsky.social

Always nice to get something out of the door: article about student teacher transitions between placements published in the Oxford Review of Education with colleagues Emma O'Dubhchair & Sioned Dafydd, and it's open access so free for anyone to read. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Teacher recruitment and retention is a hot topic at the moment, so it was a timely visit by Professor David Egan to our studio to discuss his recent report into the issues. Tune in on Friday! Here's a taster, and you can read the report here: issuu.com/cardiffmet/d...

This week we welcomed some school colleagues to our studio to create multimedia resources to support school-based teacher educators in making student teachers’ observations of lessons more focused and purposeful. Huge thanks to them, and the team from C.Met Sport Broadcast & Media for their help!

Nice to see this article (open access and available in Welsh!) out today, lead-authored by Professor Trevor Mutton from @UniofOxford who kindly asked me to help out. It was a great learning experience. journal.uwp.co.uk/wje/article/...

Congratulations to Dr @VivJohn6 who did a fab research seminar today on the experiences of popular musicians learning to be teachers. Thanks for inviting me along for the ride, Dr Viv!

Read in one sitting - thanks, @N8Holder! Ranges widely and is clear, concise, interesting and subject-specific - all my favourite things!

It’s PGCE Research Bites recording time again… two days in @MetBroadcast’s very shiny studio to bring you some of the best student teacher research from @ITEcardiffmet in both English and Welsh!

Massive congratulations to Dr @VivJohn6 who's just had an article published in Research Studies in Music Education. And it's open access so go and have a read!

Huge thanks to @lucy_crehan, @garethdjevans and Matt Maughan from @BassalegSchool1 for their contribution to today’s panel discussion for the PGCE Secondary programme. We’ll put it out on @TalkTeachingPod soon for everyone to enjoy!

What a day! @Fenn5Lisa and I had a great time, but more importantly we learned a lot, and hope our student teachers did too. Huge thanks to our panellists @Pymble1984 @prycewilliams and Marc Lewis from @YsgolPlasmawr and to Peter and Adrian from @MetBroadcast!

We’re off! Here’s what I’m seeing this morning…

A new first today - our PGCE Equity & Diversity conference, live online to nearly 400 student teachers, is a co-production between @MetBroadcast and @ITEcardiffmet - our schools of Education & Social Policy and Sport & Health Sciences collaborating on 4 hours of live broadcasting

Why we must all bang the drum for music in schools

In Edinburgh to present at #seraconf23 - looking forward to hearing some interesting things from fellow education people here! @SERA_Conference

Had a first go in the new studio today, recording a segment for @talkteachingpod with @CameronGStewart - thanks as ever to @MetBroadcast for the support!

Calling all @cardiffmet PGCE students! Time to tune in to the first of our video broadcasts about your clinical practice placements. Check your emails for details and resources. Hope you enjoy the change of pace and format - see you at 9!

First day of the PGCE was lovely yesterday, not least because we got to do the day 1 lectures in-person for the first time since 2019. My start-of-programme views from 2020 to yesterday: spot the odd one out!

The genius that is @dafydd_sioned watched me and @ethayer_cmu record three lectures this morning (with plenty of slip-ups!), had a quick lunch break, then sat down and delivered all three lectures to camera in Welsh in single takes, with only the English slides as a guide! 🤯

Massive thanks to @MetBroadcast who’ve provided their studio (re-dressed with education pictures), top-quality kit and fantastic tech support so we could produce some online resources to support school placements. Six hours of bilingual goodies in the can today!

Plenty of speculation about what @CaraCAitchison was saying to me last week. Strict royal protocol means I can neither confirm nor deny that the VC was saying, “fall through the stage again at one of my graduation ceremonies and it’s P45 time for you, miladdo, PhD or no PhD.”

Canadian PGCE student teacher Christy sharing her research into game-based maths strategies in the primary classroom with ⁦@dafydd_sioned⁩ - catch her work on ⁦@TalkTeachingPod⁩ and YouTube in the autumn!

Tameidiau o Ymchwil TAR is back! Capturing some of the best student teacher research from @cardiffmet in Welsh ⁦@metcaerdydd⁩

Slide 4 of today’s class is dedicated to @MarvinMTMusic and everyone else who twitches a bit when they see this picture.

Martha Argerich et Maria João Pires - Concerto pour deux pianos de Mozar... via @YouTube

BBC Singers: decision to scrap choir reversed after public outcry

Latest mad idea, feedback welcome! Tried to sum up 10 articles/chapters in 3 minutes each. Aimed at time-poor teachers who want to know if it's worth reading before investing the time. Not easy so apologies to any authors who think I’ve done a bad job!

It’s that time again! Filming the first of our new block of PGCE Research Bites with excellent student teachers. You can watch these at

BBC chief draws ire of 700 composers with ‘devastating’ plan to axe choir

Axing the BBC Singers is a gross miscalculation — heads should roll

Up and running bright and early this morning for two recordings: firstly to share my doctoral research and then interviewing @marywoolley down the line from @CanterburyCCUni about connections between science and religion.

Busy day in B2.16 today - three hours of live broadcasting to the #PGCE programmes featuring @theredcardwales @ITimbrell then checking the @ipDTL remote line to @marywoolley at @CanterburyCCUni ready for a @TalkTeachingPod recording on Monday!

A quick bit of filming over the #PGCE lunch hour for our ⁦@CSCJES⁩ ⁦@sewalesEAS⁩ funded project on the professional standard. Thanks to Lucy from PGCE English for helping out!

Filming ⁦@palmerston_p_s⁩ for the ⁦@CSCJES⁩ and ⁦@sewalesEAS⁩ funded standards project today. Thanks to our lovely colleagues for the warm welcome, endless supply of hot drinks, and very nice setup complete with plant!

Arriving at @cardiffuni school of social sciences to update Professor @d_avid_james about our @ITEcardiffmet research project and get some much-needed advice - been looking forward to a catch-up for a while! @CardiffSOCSI

Basil Bernstein (1975) gives some early advice (40 years early in fact) on Curriculum for Wales

A memorable quote from Prof Richard Jenkins here…

On leave for the Christmas break. Wishing all my students a well deserved rest!

A nice early Christmas present from the Wales Journal of Education: article published with lead author @profgaryb on pedagogy versus performance in primary classroom music teaching. Thanks to Gary for the opportunity to make a small contribution!

Having studied in both institutions back in the day, it’s always good to visit @cardiffunimusic and @RWCMD to try and find the next generation of classroom music teachers! Thanks to both institutions for the warm welcome this week.

Nice surprise while at #UCET2022: this article with ⁦@profgaryb⁩, Dr Nicola Bolton & Dr Alex McInch has just come out! Secondary music teachers: a case study at a time of education reform

The clinical practice requirements team preparing to present the results of @CSCJES @sewalesEAS funded work which has led to interesting outcomes for practitioners and even joint @cardiffmet/@cardiffuni research. Thanks to @UCET_UK for the invitation! #UCET2022

Screen legends @dafydd_sioned and Rhian C-W filming Welsh language resources for the #PGCE / #TAR in what must be the tiniest studio we’ve made yet!

Pushing the envelope a bit further this week - dual simultaneous teams live events to allow students to watch Welsh and English versions of the prerecorded lectures simultaneously! Colleagues standing by on the text Q&A to collect questions in both languages.

Big live event day today on the #PGCE - and our new(ish) studio is working well so far!

The online lecture format allows us to film the presentation in advance & then concentrate on addressing the questions asked by the audience during a live 'pit stop' in the middle - double the capacity! Plus students watch in a comfortable environment and know they can re-watch.